1941 Fiestaware Gnome

Gnome

This was originally posted in 2010.   I left the post up and added to it because it was often searched so as long as the show is around, even in reruns, it might be information people are looking for.

I was watching the season finale of the TV show “Bones” tonight (May 20th, 2010) and a murder revolved around a 1941 Fiestaware Gnome. Someone had posted on a fiestaware forum that it was purchased for $12 but worth $50,000!! The gnome was rare because of its big pointed hat that was painted with radioactive paint.  A horder had the gnome, fell through the ceiling of his apartment and the team ends up discovering that a possible motive for the murder could be his acquisition of the rare garden gnome made by the famous Fiesta Ware company from the 1940s.

I love Bones, even though it is pretty predictable.  Of course the Medical Examiner Archaeologist is in love with the police detective and every old corpse that is dug up has a big murder around it.  But, it is entertaining and there is worse on TV.

Well, it made a good story, but if there was a 1941 Gnome, it is news to me. It is not in any books or listings anywhere that I can find. The gnome looked just like the one in the Travelocity ads, so who knows if the two are related.

Can you imagine them at the Homer Laughlin China company designing the pieces in 1941 and deciding to throw in a gnome?

The transcript from that part of the show goes like this:

“To find out what poisoned them?” Cam asked because it was also possible that he did it solely for his own personal enjoyment.

“Not poisoned, but rendered infertile,” he corrected her.

“Oh, suggesting chemical agents or radiation,” Brennan knew.

“Radiation. What I found were phyllosilicate minerals, along with some interesting metal oxides, very small traces of vitrified clay and Uranium 235,” Hodgins specified.

“So, an atomic bomb?” Cam wasn’t understanding him this time.

“No, something much more interesting than that,” he grinned and pulled up an image of a garden gnome on the screen.

“An atomic gnome?” Cam couldn’t believe it.

“Basically. Yeah. This is the Fiestaware Christmas Gnome, circa 1954. Now, the uranium was a common ingredient in the glaze on these gnomes until the second World War, when all production of the red Fiestaware Gnome was halted,” he nodded.

“The victim claimed he possessed something worth $50,000. How much is the gnome worth?” Brennan made the connection.

“$50,000,” Hodgins confirmed.’

No real.  No Gnome address. No Fiestaware Gnomes, but who knows what might be in the future.